Articles

Common Misconceptions About Foot Surgery

Myth Buster #1. "I have always been told Never to have foot surgery because it is Incredibly painful, and the recovery is awful....Is this True??"


FALSE!!! Medicine and surgery have come a long way. In the middle ages, patient who undergo amputation and brain surgery where not given any anesthesia, the only available products are wine and brandy! Yes! Doctors would literally pour wine or brandy on the surgical site for numbing purposes! As one would see, this is not exactly comfortable! Presently, advancement of medicine and research have provided us a variety of anesthesia that are easily available to anesthesiologist and surgeons aswell to provide post-operative comfort levels during and after surgery.

At Family Foot & Leg Center in Naples, Florida, our patients report minimal to NO pain after surgery, and the majority do not need to take the prescribed pain medication. This includes All types of foot surgeries, from minor elective procedures like bunions and hammertoes, to major procedures such as foot or ankle reconstruction and emergent trauma surgeries.

Elective foot and ankle surgery is not what is once was. Pain is minimal, specifically controlled, and tolerable!

Recovery time is different for each patient, depending on the necessary procedure to correct the problem, and whether or not your situation requires a prolonged period of non-weight bearing, AKA, a cast or boot and crutches.

Visit us at familyfootandlegcenter.com for more information, and patient testimonials.

Myth Buster #2. "If I decide to have foot surgery, my risk of developing a life-threatening blood clot increases.

FALSE!! There are Numerous factors associated with blood clots! Not Just foot surgery! Genetics, birth control, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, trauma, females of child-bearing age, prolonged durations of sitting (like being on an airplane or a long drive for many hours), and genetics. Surgery is NOT the only cause of blood clots.

Unfortunately, blood clots happen. It is the responsibility of your medical doctor and surgical specialist to identify the potential risk factors that you as a patient may have, and to decrease the likelihood that you'll develop a clot.

At Family Foot and Leg Center in Naples, FL, we work very closely with your primary care physicians to have a complete patient history of medical conditions, medications, allergies, surgical history, and family history. If we are discussing elective foot/ankle surgery, and there is a high-risk of blood clot, no surgery will be done. There is ALWAYS a risk of blood clotting in any surgical procedure. There are specific precautions that are taken to significantly decrease this potential risk, i.e, oral drugs to decrease the chance of blood clotting, early physical therapy and range of motion exercises to get your body and your legs in motion, and sometimes cuffs place around the legs that regularly inflate and deflate with air compression to get your blood moving when you yourself cannot.

The point here is that foot surgery is not the sole culprit in developing a clot. It is important to consider all the risk factors an individual posses in the development of a clot, that IN COMBINATION, can increase the chances of developing a clot.